In yet another front-office departure in Colorado, assistant general manager Zach Wilson has resigned from his post, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports. Wilson is the second assistant GM to resign in the past week, joining Jon Weil in that regard. Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich stepped down from his post earlier this season. Owner Dick Monfort appointed longtime vice president of scouting Bill Schmidt to interim GM in his place. Harding adds that assistant director of player development Chris Forbes is stepping up to assume Wilson’s duties.
Wilson’s departure from the organization subtracts another veteran executive from the Rockies’ front office as a pivotal trade deadline season approaches. Wilson’s name was in the mix to take over Bridich’s duties when the post was originally vacated, and he’s been with the club for upwards of two decades. The Rox still have Schmidt and longtime assistant GM Zack Rosenthal heading up the baseball operations department, it seems, but they’re now out their GM and a pair of his top lieutenants with the trade deadline five weeks away.
The mounting number of departures gives Monfort more work to do this offseason as he looks to reshape the front office of a club that has again been one of the worst in Major League Baseball. Monfort has typically been loyal and promoted from within, though the recent failures on the field and the highly publicized rift between the front office and now-former third baseman Nolan Arenado has prompted speculation about hiring from outside the organization.
The 30-44 Rockies have MLB’s fifth-worst winning percentage (.405) and sixth-worst run differential (-58). Shortstop Trevor Story and right-hander Jon Gray are expected to be two of the game’s highest-profile trade candidates in the coming weeks, while others who could potentially hit the market include C.J. Cron, German Marquez, Mychal Givens and Kyle Freeland.
Reminds of the dumb stuff happening during the Flana-quette regime of the ’00s Orioles. Strap in, Rox fans.
Will probably be asking this in the premium chat, but how much does this reflect potential suitors for future jobs in Colorado? Like, is the front office just throwing their hands up in defeat. Effectively saying “I can’t work with Monfort”? Because he really needs to get it together at this rate.
I would imagine they know the writing is on the wall that a new person is coming in who will bring in new people. It’s pretty common to leave an organization when you don’t get promoted knowing a new boss is coming in. It’s possible they might have a new opportunity already lined up too.
As bbatardo is pointing out, employees often leave jobs when it’s clear they’re unlikely to remain in their jobs or have opportunity for advancement.
I suspect this string of quitting reflects the desire of these former employees to be available for teams looking to fill positions this year and especially for other teams looking to make staffing changes.
Honestly, it probably makes it even better when it comes to recruiting new executives since those executives will have less political drama when it comes to staffing inside the organization after hire.
Whether Monfort is the problem or not (he almost certainly is), good riddance to all of the Bridich regime.
Now that Peter Angelos is out in Baltimore, this is easily the worst ran team in baseball. I don’t know if this mass exodus of their front office is good or paints just how bad things are behind the scenes.
Terrible for Rockies fans. Bad for the game. I shudder to think what might be going on. It’s not great news heading toward a crucial trade deadline for the franchise. The weirdness of this season will make navigating the deadline even harder, and the Rockies have to get it right.
The lone bright spot for the Rockies is being 9.5 games ahead of the Diamondbacks. In a month, both teams will have expansion-team rosters. This imbalance will stink for wildcard contenders in the other two divisions.
A front office can’t outrun bad ownership.
Clearly because he’s gotta play QB for the Jets this year.
Beat me to it…
That’s “out of the frying pan, into the fire” . Going from Rockies to Jets
Obviously a team that needs an enema, all the way through. They’re a complete train wreck. And they still draw some pretty good crowds.
Dunno what the solution is. But hiring a veteran-guy (Alderson-type) who then hires one of the young bucks who understand the new game, seems to be a start.
Nice to see the racial comments were removed from this thread. By some guy who claimed to be a Cards fan living in Denver.
MLB at 5000+ feet is not workable. Move to Portland.
Portland is a bad city for anyone, let alone an MLB team to move to right now. The Rockies need new ownership desperately.
Rueben Amaro will be next GM.Hopefully he brings some of the Philly loser front office with him.
dumpster. fire.
This is fine in my opinion if only because it will force the team to look outside the organization for the next regime. The biggest problem with the Monforts is their incredible loyalty. I love the Rockies mainly because of their loyalty to players, but sometimes it goes too far. Seeing Todd Helton stay with the team for his entire career instead of being traded for some prospect in the early 2010s made me very happy. Seeing Dan O’Dowd and his underling Bridich stay the GM for 20+ years of mostly losing baseball did not make me happy.
McMahon has been a healthy scratch for 3 days. Where is the trade rumor?
According to Rockies TV announcers, he has arm soreness but not serious enough for a trip to the IL.
can the rockies just trade their good players cheap and just field the minor league team they are in reality? no need to wait for the deadline.
I think the unfortunate consequence to these departures is the lack of experience on the part of those left in the FO will likely result in the organizational decision to NOT trade any assets at the deadline. Prepare for the comments (likely from Schmidt) justifying holding Story, Gray, etc – “We feel the comp picks are of greater value to this organization than anything we’d get back in a trade.” Fact is nobody in charge has even so much as traded baseball cards much less players.
The fact that Montfort passed over the entire front office to name the head of scouting as GM even if its on an interim basis is telling. I think we all expect the Rockies to be major sellers at the deadline so it probably makes sense since the scouting department is going to be very important as the Rox look to acquire prospects. Any and all of these assistants were likely going to be let go after the season anyway
Being loyal to their front office personnel has produced zero results. Need fresh ideas, especially in the draft amd development of pitchers. Would like to see them draft more pitchers earlier as free agent pitchers will not come unless overpaid. Burn it down for a full rebuild.
A good house cleaning is certainly in order. This team has been a disaster since 1993. 5 playoff teams in 28 years is not a good track record. Hopefully, Montfort gets frustrated and sells to Mark Cuban..
Unlikely the other owners agree to sell to Cuban. If that were the case he would have bought the Pirates a decade and a half ago